Your Gifts at Work:Perinatal Treatment Program

Helping new mothers cope with postpartum challenges

One area of health care where philanthropy can have a tremendous impact is in helping stabilize and grow new programs. A good example of this is a generous gift from an anonymous donor to CPMC’s Perinatal Treatment Program.

For some women, having a baby is a difficult time emotionally. The new mother might experience mood swings, anxiety, or feel that she isn’t properly connecting with her newborn. Left untreated, this condition can also lead to serious short-term and long-term negative consequences for the child including eating difficulties, temper tantrums, hyperactivity, and delayed mental development.

Difficult challenges in need of solutions

At least 15 percent of new mothers will experience mood disorders needing clinical support. At CPMC alone that could translate to about 1,000 women in need of serious help every year. To complicate matters, about half of these new mothers are not consistently identified as being in need. And even when they are, providers often don’t know where to send them for fast, effective treatment. Surprisingly, there was no hub of such support in The City—until now.

To face this challenge, CPMC has launched a pilot Perinatal Treatment Program to identify and address women’s unmet mental health needs both during and after pregnancy. This interdisciplinary team of doctors, nurses, psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers and community practitioners has joined forces to address the lack of resources for local women suffering from postpartum mood disorders. The program also provides training for 150 labor and delivery nurses at CPMC to help them better recognize patients in need of this help.

Additional activities provided by the Perinatal Treatment Program include:

Multidisciplinary postpartum depression task force

Newborn Intensive Care (NICU) support group

Screening partnership with Obstetrics-Gynecology (OB-GYN) and Pediatrics to better identify women in need

Donor support generates early success

How you can help

Thanks to the anonymous donor’s gift, the program is already making great progress. However, this is currently only a pilot program. Your gift could help fully implement this crucial service so women can get the postpartum help they need—and have a positive impact on their children’s long-term health at the same time.

Your gift will help implement the Perinatal Treatment Program so women can get the postpartum help they need—and have a positive impact on their children’s long-term health

“This isn’t what I expected when I had my child. It was hard to talk about, let alone know where to go for help. Calling this program made me feel less alone and get the right help for me and my baby.” --Triage line patient